Howard has been focused this season on both ends. / Troy Taormina, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

There comes a point in a player's career where talking points can evolve into real talk.

Spin begets substance. The all-powerful narrative, if controlled in all the right ways and respected for its rightful place in the court of public opinion, can change for the better - no matter how bad the story may have been to that point.

Dwight Howard knows this, you see, and this much is clear as we enter the 2014 NBA playoffs: He wants a rewrite.

The Houston Rockets center has made amends for the Orlando Magic debacle, apologizing to his former team's loyal fanbase that suffered through the self-indulgent "Dwightmare" which led to him being jettisoned to the Los Angeles Lakers in the summer of 2012. He has been forthright about his decision to leave the Lakers and an additional $30 million behind last summer, noting how the Rockets' core of players was simply more attractive while keeping his many grievances about his time in Los Angeles to himself.

Ask him about this Rockets team that has secured home-court advantage for a first-round series against the Portland Trail blazers by finishing fourth in the loaded Western Conference, and he'll emphasize all the tenets that - in a perfect world of basketball bliss - help good teams become great: togetherness, sacrifice, dedication. This is how a player that went from revered to reviled in these past few years can change the script.

"We have a great squad," Howard tells USA TODAY Sports. "You look at the guys we have on our team: We have a guy in James (Harden) who can get buckets for you at any time, and then we've got Chandler (Parsons), who has been playing great all year. Not only that, you have Pat (Beverley), who is playing great defense up top. You've got Jeremy (Lin). We've got Omer (Asik). We have a lot of guys."

He mentions them all, it seems, as if he's afraid to leave someone out.

"We have a well-balanced team," Howard says. "And for me at this point, it's all about sacrifice for all of us. We have to find ways to sacrifice ourselves, sacrifice our bodies for the benefit of the team. That's the biggest thing."

IDENTITY SHIFT: 'All I want to do is win'

Some of the Lakers folks he left behind will chuckle because this was not the Dwight Howard they knew. As they see it, he didn't always value the group over the individual or seem so sincere when he spoke of sacrifice. But that was then, and this handpicked Houston situation that has worked out incredibly well is now.

As his friend LeBron James will tell you, winning is still the best cure-all for an image that has been battered and bruised. For all the talk of how the Miami Heat star and his associates became so much better at handling his public relations in recent years - and that is undeniable - the back-to-back titles quieted the crowd of critics around him more than anything else.

So it is for Howard, who is well aware that winning at a high level and perhaps even winning it all would work wonders for his world. Entering Wednesday's season finale, the Rockets already had won nine more games this season than they did when they were the eighth seed in the playoffs last season.

Now comes the hard part, a first-round matchup against a dynamic Blazers team and the inevitable judgment that will come with their fate from there. It has been five years since Howard carried the Magic to the Finals, followed by a trip to the Eastern Conference finals in 2010. But he has had first-round series losses in the past three seasons. Returning to real relevance starts here more than anywhere else.

"All I want to do is win," said Howard, who averaged 18.4 points, 12.3 rebounds and 1.8 blocks a game this season while helping Houston improve four spots in the defensive ranking category (16th to 12th). "That's the only thing that matters to me. If we win, then everything falls into place. I can't control how people feel. I can't control any of that stuff, so that's not my focus. People are going to say whatever they're going to say about me, say I'm not playing as great or they don't talk about me as much. But that's fine. All you have to do is win. When you win games, nobody can say anything. So that's the only thing I'm going to do."

L.A. STORY: Dwight wants to move on

But narratives change slowly, if at all. And while it has been almost a year since he wore a purple and gold jersey, the damage done to his image up until that point is still quite a ways from being undone.

That much was evident in late January, when he wasn't voted in by fans as an All-Star Game starter. Rockets officials were convinced that the player who unofficially took his place - Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love - was given a late boost at the polls by Laker Nation. Their alleged motive made perfect sense: by trying to keep Howard off of the starting lineup, they could not only exact a slice of revenge for his departure but also elevate the player (Love) who the Lakers are widely known to covet via trade or free agency in the summer of 2015.

The memories are still visceral for the ones he left behind, it seems. Howard not playing like himself because of the back injury that hadn't truly healed. Howard and Kobe Bryant trading proverbial counterpunches internally rather than forming a formidable 1-2 punch. Howard being ejected from his last game in a Lakers uniform, that Game 4 defeat at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs in which he described it all afterward that as "a nightmare, like a bad dream."

He's awake now, though, and the Lakers are the ones sleeping through this long and frightful night.

The ripple effect of Howard's departure in Los Angeles was showcased in a perfect storm April 8 at Staples Center, when the Rockets' win vs. the Lakers made it official that his former team would have the worst record since the franchise relocated from Minnesota in 1960. Howard didn't play, as he was resting the sore left ankle that kept him out of 11 of Houston's last 13 games.

It was an unintended mercy move, in that respect, the salt of his situation still seeping into the open wounds of the Lakers fans on hand but not poured directly. Still, the vibe behind the scenes was nothing short of fascinating.

Long before tipoff and in the hallway of his former work home, Howard - who wore pants that were either bright pink or salmon, depending on the fashion critic - exchanged pleasantries with the half-dozen or so media members who used to cover him on a daily basis. Some were warm towards him, others not so much, as he made his way into the visitors locker room.

Unlike the Lakers, the Rockets were just fine without him on that night. They set a new season-high in scoring, winning 145-130 and embarrassing the home team with a 49-point third quarter. Yet even with Howard sitting on the sideline, the unhappy locals greeted their unwelcome guest with chants of "Coward" instead of "Howard" early on. Later in the evening, they would give 40-year-old point guard Steve Nash a standing ovation for passing Mark Jackson on the all-time assists leader board and moving up to third place.

Howard left the land where he'll never be loved later that night, but not before saying goodbye to the beloved Nash in that same hallway on his way out. A year before, they had teamed up for a 28-12 finish to the regular season that made it seem possible that Howard might stay. Days after Howard was gone, a candid Nash told reporters in early July that Howard "wasn't comfortable" in Laker Land and said, "If he didn't want to be here, there's no point for anyone in him being here." Now, they were chatting briefly and exchanging half-hugs before parting polar-opposite ways yet again.

"Hey," Nash told Howard as he headed for the exits. "Good luck in the playoffs."

HAPPINESS: Houston has been good for Howard

This is his unavoidable past, but it's starting to become his prologue. And these playoffs, inevitably, will play a huge part in how he is perceived.

"I feel great," Howard said. "We have a great chance. These other teams are seasoned, have been together longer, so of course they're going to have a little bit more experience when it comes to that as a team. But if me and James (Harden) do our part and lead these guys, we should have a great playoff run this year. We really want to win a championship, so that's our goal and our focus.

"For myself, the biggest thing is making my teammates better. That's my whole plan is to help my teammates in any possible way so they can be the best players that they can be. That's the only thing that matters."

He routinely uploads pictures and videos of his teammates and all their shenanigans, this young and fun group that is such a better fit than the Bryant-dominated Lakers for Howard's personality. He praises Beverley's play from the latest game, gives a shout-out to reserves like Omri Casspi, Donatas Motiejunas or Francisco Garcia if they chipped in the night before.

"Adidas (photo) shoot with the fellas," he captioned recently on a picture of himself and four teammates chatting in the locker room.

"I love my team," he wrote on an entry in which himself and four teammates re-enacted a scene from the movie "Django Unchained" while having lunch together.

"Great pool workout fellas" read another with a picture of Howard and six other Rockets players looking like a swim team.

He shares personal reflections, too, including a picture of a stranger's hand that has a saying written in black ink, "They tell you to be yourself, and then they judge you."

"I like this," Howard writes.

It's a positive look for someone who has inspired so much negativity in recent years, the sort of personal style change that seems more and more genuine with every passing month. Yet still, as image-rehabilitating pictures go, it's nothing compared to the idea Howard and his Rockets pals posing in mid-June with a championship trophy in hand.

"I feel like it's going to be a lot of fun," Howard said of the playoffs. "We're very focused. All we've been talking about all year is winning a championship, so that's where our mind is. We can't wait. We're excited."